The present invention relates to an apparatus for aligning the cores of two optical fibers.
To join two optical fibers of two optical fiber cables by fusing the two fibers together, it is most important to align the opposite cores of the two optical fibers Since the optical loss at the splicing portion becomes larger as the deviation between the centers of the cores of the optical fibers becomes larger, it is required to splice the optical fibers with as little deviation as possible.
Conventionally, two optical fibers have been spliced in the manner now to be described As shown in Fig. 1, a covering is removed from end portions of each of optical fiber cables 1 and 2 to expose respective optical fibers 1a and 2a. The other end of the optical fiber cable 1 is connected to a light source 3 and the other end of the optical fiber cable 2 is connected to a photodetector 4. The light level detected by the photodetector 4 is displayed by a power meter 5, which is connected to the photodetector 4 through a line 6 and disposed near the splicing portion of the optical fibers. The relative positions of the cores of the optical fibers 1 and 2 are adjusted referring to the light level displayed on the power meter 5, and are held at the position where the light level becomes a maximum. The ends of the fibers are then fused to splice them
Although effective, this conventional splicing system is not economical because it requires the connection of a power meter to the photodetector.